New York Times on Hurricane Sandy relief sequester follows NBC in ‘news’ distortion

Feb. 5, 2013, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson today issued the following statement demanding a correction for the New York Times for a Sunday, Feb. 3 editorial, “A million jobs at stake,” that claimed the $50.5 billion of “aid just approved for victims of Hurricane Sandy will fall under the sequester’s ax”:

“At Americans for Limited Government, we were quite shocked to ‘learn’ in a New York Times editorial that Congress had subjected the entire $50.5 billion of hurricane disaster relief that just passed Congress to sequestration. That, somehow, this spending was paid for with offsetting cuts elsewhere in the budget. But upon undertaking a thorough analysis of the legislation, in section after section, these appropriations were specifically exempted from sequestration under the Budget Control Act. If it were otherwise, it would be one of the greatest oversights by an elected body in recent memory.

“This either was pure propaganda, a willful, purposeful distortion, using hurricane victims as human shields yet again — this time to rail against sequestration cuts — or it was just shoddy journalism by the New York Times editorial board. Neither is worthy of the so-called paper of record. They should issue a correction, and apologize to the millions of victims who were affected by Hurricane Sandy in their readership area.

“This just confirms what others have said, such as Investor’s Business Daily, that the mainstream media has become little more than mouthpieces for the political left, the establishment in Washington, D.C., and the Obama Administration. Using hurricane victims as props to achieve an unrelated policy objective is just the newest low in a long line of demagoguery by the media, with Republicans in Congress set up as useful scapegoats. This is simply shameless.

“The fact is, amendments were offered by Rep. Mick Mulvaney in the House and Sen. Mike Lee in the Senate that would have paid for hurricane disaster relief, and they were both soundly defeated in Congress. These amendments should have been passed to help pay for the disaster relief — not to cut the disaster relief funding itself — which was simply another distortion by the Times editorial. The fact is, these amendments were not passed, and the spending not paid for. The Times needs to correct the record.”

Testimonials

"Americans for Limited Government can be an incredibly effective force in advancing the cause of freedom." -Ed Crane, Founder/President, Cato Institute
" Americans for Limited Government stands up... to defend the most important principles in politics today." -Tom Coburn US Senate (R-OK)